Patriots quarterback Mac Jones used the bye week to do a ‘full audit’ of himself

NFL bye weeks are not just a time for rest, but also for reflection. They give teams an opportunity to look inward and see what has and has not worked, and which changes might be necessary to ensure future success.

Mac Jones did all that in Week 10, using the New England Patriots’ week off to conduct a “full audit” of himself after an uneven first half of the regular season.

“A lot of us are working on different things every day, and the bye week’s a great time to do that,” the sophomore quarterback told reporters on Wednesday.

“For me, just making sure my feet and eyes are in the right place. Continue to go through my reads, and continue to improve in the weight room, nutrition, all that stuff. So, it’s a full audit of yourself, I guess you can call it. Kind of look at yourself and see what you can do better.”

For Jones, the first nine games of the year have been a challenge. Coming off one of the best rookie quarterback seasons in recent memory, he had a hard time building momentum in the Patriots’ new-look offense — in part because he was forced to miss time after suffering a high ankle sprain in Week 3 — and is currently one of the statistically least efficient passers in football.

Visit NESN for more Patriots coverage

Here’s More Evidence That Jakobi Meyers Is Criminally Underrated

What Ty Montgomery’s Season-Ending Injury Means For Patriots

Patriots Practice Notes: Pats Show New O-Line Setup Before Jets Game

How Patriots’ Devin McCourty Feels About Possibly Coaching After Retiring

On the year, Jones has completed 66.1 percent of his pass attempts for 1,140 yards with four touchdowns and seven interceptions. Needless to say, the 24-year-old has plenty of room for improvement.

On Wednesday, he named a few areas he was targeting during the bye.

“A lot of things are personal to me and things that I want to keep to myself, but a lot of things that I can improve: footwork, timing, eyes, all that stuff,” Jones said. “I’m trying to improve that every week, regardless, definitely putting extra emphasis on it and trying to match up everything. Felt good about the progress we made, just have to apply it on Sunday.”

Jones will get an opportunity to apply the progress against a familiar opponent this week: the New York Jets will visit Gillette Stadium on Sunday, the second meeting between the two AFC East rivals this year.

The first game was won by the Patriots with a final score of 22-17, but the contest itself was a struggle for Jones and the offense. The unit had too many negative plays, turned the ball over, needed to convert multiple third-and-longs to keep drives alive, and once again failed to finish possessions in the end zone.

All of that was pretty much a continuation from earlier in the year, and another sign that the unit had yet to find its identity. So, has it found something during the bye?

“Every offense is finding that through the year. It’s going to be defined through the year,” Jones said. “We’ve got to work through that. At the end of the day we know what we want to do. We need to score more points and eliminate the turnovers and negative plays. And that’s kind of where we’re at. From there we just grow together — coaches, players, everybody.

“I feel like we have good effort and energy and all that stuff. So, we’re controlling those things and then the results are going to come here soon.”